A new study sheds light?on this dangerous combination. High blood pressure, heart disease and stroke are just some of the problems that obesity can cause. Diabetes can also result from obesity and, if left untreated, can lead to problems like heart disease, vision loss, kidney disease and nerve damage. If obesity and diabetes exist together, could they be a deadly duo? A recent study based on the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) looked at this question to see if being obese and having diabetes can pose a greater risk of death than being obese and not having diabetes. The NHIS study followed a large group of U.S.-born black and non-Hispanic white study members for about 10 years. Study members were placed into five groups based on their body mass index (BMI), so it was easy to see which members were obese. Study members who had?diabetes, no matter what their BMI was, had a greater risk of death. The obese study members also had a greater risk of death and lower quality of life than those who were not obese, whether they had diabetes or not. Tips For Staying Healthy Eating plenty of fruits, vegetables and lean protein, and limiting the amount of sugary and fatty foods in your diet are great ways to start improving your health. Being active for 30 minutes most days of the week can help you keep your weight within a healthy range. At the same time, you’ll be keeping your heart healthy and lowering your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Even if you already have diabetes, the same rules apply. Eating a balanced diet of high-fiber and high-protein foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and low-fat dairy products, will keep you fuller longer and will keep your sweet tooth in check. By eating healthy and?staying active, you can?keep your diabetes under?control, spend less time at?your healthcare provider’s?office, and increase the?amount of time you spend?enjoying a healthy life. What does this mean for me? Whether you have diabetes or not, eating a healthy?diet and staying active can help keep your weight?within a healthy range. Keeping your BMI below the?obesity marker of 30 will lower your risk of diabetes?and other health problems, such as high blood?pressure and stroke. If you have diabetes, following?a healthy eating plan and staying active will help?you manage your blood glucose levels and protect?against any additional health problems. By Amy Campbell MS, RD, LDN, CDE

The post Obesity And Diabetes: A Deadly Duo appeared first on Spring 2016 Issue | CDiabetes Online Magazine.

  HOW COQ10 WORKS CoQ10 helps cells make energy for?the body from the food we eat. Its?job is to make something called?ATP, which is a lot like gas for your?car. But it does more than just help?fuel the body.     By Amy Campbell, MS, RD, CDE

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When it comes to controlling your blood glucose, you have probably researched the impact of everything from food, to exercise, to weight control. But have you looked into how spices may impact it? Cinnamon is a spice that doesn’t just add great flavor to foods; it may help to lower blood glucose as well. The best benefit it offers is that it’s all-natural and considered safe for most people with diabetes. Does it sound too good to be true? In Medieval times, cinnamon was used for medicinal purposes thanks to its high antioxidant properties. Research now shows us that it may be a powerful player in the fight against diabetes. Cinnamon may help to lower blood glucose levels by decreasing insulin resistance. When your cells become resistant to insulin, the glucose-lowering hormone in your body, they do not allow insulin to carry glucose into your cells. This results in glucose remaining in your bloodstream and rising over time, eventually leading to diabetes. Both whole cinnamon and extracted cinnamon have been shown to lower blood glucose levels. Cinnamon has also been shown to help reduce unhealthy LDL cholesterol levels and blood pressure, both of which are conditions that can increase your risk of heart disease. One down side is that everything that Mother Nature puts into the cinnamon plant also ends up in the finished product. This includes water soluble as well as fat soluble compounds. Our bodies have no problem processing water soluble compounds, but fat soluble compounds tend to be stubborn for our bodies to digest. When choosing a form of cinnamon, we suggest you look for a water extracted concentrate without the fat soluble compounds. Water extracted forms can maximize the health benefits, while minimizing the risks of fat soluble buildup. The extraction process allows the beneficial water soluble components of cinnamon to stay, providing you with the same health benefits of whole cinnamon in a much smaller portion. When looking for water extracted cinnamon, it’s important that you read the label and look specifically for the term “water extracted.” Because it is more concentrated, you can take fewer capsules to get all the health benefits of cinnamon. This may be more practical than trying to incorporate large amounts of whole cinnamon into your meal plan. CinSulin water-extracted cinnamon is backed by five human clinical studies, all of which are double blind, peer reviewed and published. In addition, UC Davis completed a meta analysis to validate the results of these human clinical studies. They found support that water extracted cinnamon lowered fasting blood glucose an average of 10%. If you are considering using cinnamon to help control blood glucose levels, make sure you discuss this with your certified diabetes educator or other healthcare provider. If you use cinnamon in combination with other medicines or supplements that also lower glucose levels, you may increase your risk of hypoglycemia. Your healthcare provider can work with you to make sure you incorporate cinnamon into your diabetes treatment plan in a way that works best for you.   By Erin Palinski-Wade RD, LDN, CDE  

The post How Water Extracted Cinnamon Can Improve Your Blood Glucose Control appeared first on Spring 2016 Issue | CDiabetes Online Magazine.

Keeping your blood glucose levels under control can be hard to do when you’re busy, especially if you count carbs as part of your balanced meal plan. You may not always have time to count carbs when you have to grab something fast at work, or while running errands. At these times, meal replacements may be just the help you need to keep your blood glucose levels on track. What is a meal replacement? The most common types of meal replacement are protein bars and shakes. Over the years, these products have become much better tasting. You can get them in a variety of flavors and forms. Products that are 150 calories or less are considered a snack replacement, while those that have 200 calories or more are considered full meal replacements. Snack replacements can be paired with a veggie or fruit serving to create a small meal. Most meal replacements are low in carbohydrates, and have a healthy amount of fiber and protein. How can meal replacements improve my health? One of the biggest challenges to leading a healthy lifestyle is not having enough time to make healthy meals and snacks. Meal replacements, which usually require little to no prep time, can provide you with plenty of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and calories to keep you full for a few hours. Having a healthy balance of fiber-rich carbohydrate and protein every three to four hours can help prevent blood glucose highs and lows, and stop you from craving unhealthy foods. Over time, this can help you reach and maintain a healthy weight. If you are having a hard time keeping up a healthy lifestyle, meal replacements may help you get back on track. Here are some ways you can add meal replacements to your day: Keep a meal replacement on hand to prevent overeating. Having a filling meal replacement when you are invited on a last minute outing with friends, or when you are craving sweets, can help you avoid giving in to temptation. Keep a protein bar in your bag. Whether you’re running late, stuck in traffic, or have errands to run and not enough time, a protein bar is a great way to keep your blood glucose balanced. Glucerna makes chocolate chip and peanut chocolate chip meal replacement bars, as well as 80-calorie snack bars in oatmeal raisin, chocolate caramel, and chocolate peanut flavors. The best part? They only have about 11 carbohydrates per serving. Try a protein-based shake or fruit drink for a quick and refreshing breakfast. Meal replacement shakes and drinks are great breakfast substitutes for those who usually skip breakfast. Glucerna meal replacement shakes are made just for people with diabetes, and come in delicious flavors like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and butter pecan. Glucerna shakes are 8 ounces each, and have 190 calories, 23 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fiber, and 10 grams of protein. Glucerna also makes Hunger Smart brand shakes in vanilla and chocolate, which are higher in protein and only 140 calories.     By Staci Gulbin, MS, MEd, RD, LDN

The post Meal Replacements Can Help You Manage Diabetes on the Go appeared first on Spring 2016 Issue | CDiabetes Online Magazine.

Some say soy increases your risk of cancer, while others say soy can lower your risk for chronic disease. Can one?serving?of soy a day keep?the doctor away??Over the past 10?years, people have?been talking a lot?about soy and how it?affects your health. Is Soy Good?For You? Some say soy increases your risk?of cancer, while?others say soy can?lower your risk for chronic diseases,?such as diabetes. So who should?you believe? Check?out the research and?decide for yourself. About Soy It is one of the few?plant foods that has?enough of the protein building blocks we all need for good health. It has very little saturated fat and no cholesterol. It can be a healthy change from animal proteins such as beef, pork or eggs. These animal proteins can be high in fat. It has lots of good fats, like polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids. There has been a lot of argument about soy because it contains plant hormones called “phytoestrogens,” or plant estrogens. It is not clear whether or not phytoestrogens can lead to hormone-related cancers. Soy And Cancer Research Scientists used?to think that the?phytoestrogens from?soy could lead to?an increased risk of?tumor growth. But?these tumor findings?were only done using?animals like rats?and mice. Advanced?studies show that?rats and mice digest?phytoestrogens differently from?people. Other studies?have shown that soy?phytoestrogens can?actually help?prevent cancer. Researchers also?looked at people with?lung cancer. They?found that people?who eat more soy?foods lived longer?than those who ate?very little soy. Based on these findings and others,?the American Cancer?Society says that?soy is safe, even?for people who?have had estrogen-related?cancers like?breast cancer. how much soy should i eat each day? One serving of soy gives you about 7 to 15 g?of protein. The research says that adults?should eat between two and four servings,?or about 25 g, of soy foods each day. Soy And Heart Health Soy can lower your?risk of heart disease?and help lower your cholesterol. If you?replace some high-fat?animal proteins with?low-fat soy proteins,?you may be able to?lower your blood?lipids and, therefore,?lower your risk of?heart disease. The American Heart?Association suggests?that eating between?25 and 50 grams of?soy protein each day?is safe and can help?reduce your LDL, or?“bad” cholesterol,?by up to 8 percent. The Verdict… Whole soy foods?are safe to eat for?everyone as part of a?healthy lifestyle. They?help lower your risk?of heart disease and?cancer. So go ahead?and replace the meat?in your stir fry with?some soy beans for a?healthy twist. It’s sure?to please your taste?buds and your heart. 5tips to add soy to your diet 1 Stick to whole soy foods, such as soybeans, soy nuts, tofu or tempeh. Fermented soy foods such as miso can be high in sodium. More processed soy foods, like nuggets or soy patties, may have a lot of added sodium and sugar. 2 Drink one cup of soy milk with meals, in a smoothie, or on cereal for about 7 g of protein and less than 5 g of fat. 3 Eat a half-cup of soybeans, also known as edamame, alone or as part of salads, soups or stir-fry dishes. 4 One-quarter cup of soy nuts provides you with 15 g of protein and only 10 g of fat. This is about half the fat of one serving of peanuts or cashews. 5 Use tofu to replace meat in recipes. Stir-fry and grill tofu, or dice and add it to stews, soups or lasagna. By Staci Gulbin, MS, MEd, RD, LD

The post To Soy Or Not To Soy? appeared first on Spring 2016 Issue | CDiabetes Online Magazine.

Facts About Vitamins, Minerals?And Herbal Supplements For People With Diabetes. IT’S NOT UNUSUAL to hear people who have diabetes say, “I don’t want to take medicine.” Yet a lot of people with diabetes are taking dietary supplements, such as vitamins, minerals and herbs for extra help with their health problems. Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) and Professor of Pharmacy Laura Shane-McWhorter knows just how common this is. In an article she wrote for the American Diabetes Association, she noted that in 2011, more than half of Americans with diabetes took some kind of supplement every day. This is a big increase from 2002, when only 1-in-4 people with diabetes were taking an herbal product each day. Complementary And Alternative Medicine Taking vitamins, minerals and herbs is part of an approach to health called Complementary and Alternative Medicine, or CAM by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). They define CAM as “a group of varied medical systems, practices, and products that are not usually part of ‘regular’ medicine.” Regular medicine is the kind of medicine that most doctors, nurses, diabetes educators and pharmacists currently practice. Regular medicine is also known as Western medicine. The differences between CAM and regular medicine are not always clear. There is lots of new research showing that some CAM practices are safe and effective. This has led to many of these practices being accepted by regular healthcare providers and the public. For example, it is now common for both CAM and regular healthcare providers to suggest yoga as a way to decrease stress. Integrative medicine is a practice that does just this: It blends alternative and complementary therapies and regular medicine so patients get the best of both worlds. 1 Understand why you are taking the supplement. Do you know what the supplement is supposed to do for you? If it is one that claims to lower your blood glucose, do you know if it is helping? To find out, check your blood glucose level often when you are taking the supplement. Then cut down on the amount you take to see if it makes any difference. If you see that it doesn’t make any difference, there may be no need to keep taking it. 2 Tell your healthcare providers, including your pharmacist, what supplements you are taking. Just like you tell your healthcare providers what medicines you take, you should also tell them what supplements and other over-the-counter medicines you take. Better yet, bring the bottles with you to your next office visit. Your healthcare provider may be able to tell you if it’s safe to take all of the different medicines together. 3 continue to take your prescribed medicine. Do not stop taking your prescribed medicine when you start a new supplement. If you see your blood glucose levels are getting too low, contact your healthcare provider and discuss this before making any changes on your own. 4 Keep learning from trusted sources. You may receive information about CAM in the mail or from friends and family. But, don’t trust everything you see and hear. Make sure the information you get is correct and safe. 5 There is also a lot of information available for free on the internet. Check out nccam.nih.gov for useful information. You can also learn a lot by reading magazine or talking to your local pharmacist. Herbs And Dietary Supplements People take dietary supplements for many different reasons including: the belief that they can avoid the side effects of regular medicines the belief that they are natural. It is important to know that although many supplements are natural, natural does not always mean safe. There are many plants that are natural, but are also poisonous. Some supplements may also interact with medicines you already take, prescribed or over-the-counter. There is no government agency to make sure the supplements you take are safe, as there is for regular medicines. Prescription and over-the-counter medicines need to go through years of scientific research to prove they are safe and effective before they can be sold to you. Once on the market, the government regulates all prescription drugs to make sure the actual ingredients and amount stated on the label is what you receive. Dietary supplements have no such regulation. There is no law that says the amount of the supplement needs to be stated on the bottle, and if it does list this, there is no guarantee that what it states is true. By Joy Pape MSN, RN, FNP, CDE, WOCN, CFCN, FAADE

The post Complementary Medicine, Vitamins And Supplements appeared first on Spring 2016 Issue | CDiabetes Online Magazine.

Have you ever tried to lose weight and hit a point where the pounds didn’t seem to come off anymore? Does it seem harder to lose weight now than it was when you were younger? If you’ve answered yes to these questions, it may be time to jumpstart your weight loss. Here are a few things you can do to help burn those calories again—and hopefully get to or maintain your weight goal. METABOLISM 101 Metabolism is a fancy word for the rate or speed at which your body uses energy. The body needs energy to do everything: to breathe, to digest food, to think and, of course, to do physical activity. Just like your car runs on gas, your body derives the energy it needs from the foods you eat. When you’re young, your metabolism (sometimes called metabolic rate) is higher. That’s why you could eat almost anything, in any amount, and not gain weight—when you were young. But with age, the metabolism starts to slow down. Eating the same amount of food as you did in your 20s now makes you gain weight. Starting at about the age of 25, metabolism tends to drop between 5 percent and 10 percent every decade. However, your genes play a role, too. The same calorie intake may translate into different weight gains for different people. Your genes, in part, determine how fast you burn calories. Furthermore, men tend to have a faster metabolism than women—up to 15 percent faster. This is partially due to the fact that men naturally have more muscle mass than women, and the more muscle one has, the more calories one burns. Women, on the other hand, tend to have more fat, and their bodies hold onto it more than mens do. This might explain why women often have a harder time losing weight. As you lose weight, your metabolism slows a bit because there’s less of you to energize. Your body doesn’t need as much energy as it did when you weighed more. Also, even when you lose weight the healthy way—by cutting back on food portions and being more active—you will lose some muscle along with fat. Less muscle mass means fewer calories burned. ? 12 Ways To Boost Your Metabolism The good news is that there’s a lot that you can do to speed up your metabolism. Here’s how: 1 Build up your muscle mass. You don’t need to become a bodybuilder, but the more muscle you have compared with fat, the more calories you’ll burn. Think of it this way: Each pound of muscle burns 6 calories each day, while each pound of fat burns only 2 calories a day. Be sure to include strength training at least three times a week as part of your physical activity. 2 Fit in fiber. High-fi ber foods help keep your digestive tract healthy. One type of fi ber, called soluble fi ber, may help lower blood glucose and cholesterol levels. Fiber may also help boost metabolism because the body tries to digest it, which burns calories in the process. High-fiber foods include whole grain breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, and beans. 3 Drink water. One study showed that people who drank eight or more glasses of water every day burned more calories than people who drank only four glasses of water each day. 4 Eat breakfast. Your body stays in sleep mode all night, so give it a jump-start in the morning with a good breakfast. Choose a bowl of high-fiber cereal, some fruit and a healthy protein food, such as an egg, low-fat cottage cheese or some peanut butter. People who eat breakfast are more likely to lose weight than people who don’t. 5 Give your heart a workout. Strength training builds muscle mass, but you also need aerobic activity to help burn calories. When you do aerobic activity, such as walking, jogging, swimming or using an exercise bike, you’ll keep burning calories even after you stop moving. You can get an even more beneficial workout by doing interval training, which means working hard for a couple of minutes, then slowing down to an easier pace. 6 Eat regularly. If you think skipping meals helps cut calories, think again. It takes energy to burn energy. When you eat every few hours, you boost your metabolism. If you skip a meal or go too long without eating, your body goes into starvation mode and conserves calories. 7 Keep moving. Make time for physical activity to help control your diabetes. A lso, try to move as often as you can during the day. Stand up and walk around when you’re on the phone, march in place when you watch television, or climb a few flights of stairs to help you burn calories and strengthen your muscles. 8 Eat enough. As tempting as those lowcalorie diets can be, it’s best to avoid them. If you take in fewer than 1,000 calories per day, your metabolism will slow down because the body thinks it’s starving. Although it sounds funny, you need to eat to lose weight. 9 Include protein. Make sure each of your meals contains protein. It takes more energy for your body to digest protein than carbohydrates. Also, protein helps maintain your muscle mass. Choose healthy proteins, such as skinless chicken or turkey, lean beef, eggs, fish, lowerfat cheese and tofu. 10 Spice it up.Hot, spicy foods can also raise your metabolism for a short while. 11 Eat more fish.Cold water, fatty fish—like salmon, tuna, mackerel and herring—contain healthy fish oils that may not only protect against heart disease, but may also help increase metabolism by about 400 calories per day. 12 Get plenty of sleep.A lack of sleep can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and weight gain. When you’re short on sleep, certain hormones, like cortisol and ghrelin, kick in and increase your appetite. Try to get between seven and eight hours of sleep every night. By Amy Campbell,?MS, RD,...

The post Jump-Start Your Weight Loss appeared first on Spring 2016 Issue | CDiabetes Online Magazine.